Via con Dios mi amigo...

I’m afraid I’ve hit the dreaded “Wall” or plateau in my weight loss journey.  In fact, I’ve bounced around between a 2 lb. fluctuation (back & forth) for the past week, but I think I have a valid excuse.  Last Monday, we got some heart breaking news, that my wife’s precious father (who was also one of my dearest friends) had suddenly passed away. 

Therefore, before I go further excusing myself for the current state of my fatness, I’d like to say that I will very much miss Lt Col Roger Lee Feaster, USAF (Ret).  He was a wonderful Husband, Father, Grandfather and Friend, a staunch Patriot, and a faithful & tireless servant of Christ.  

In short, he was the epitome of integrity.  I think I can truly say that he is one of the few people that I’ve known in my half century of life, that I wish my life could emulate. 

So, Wednesday began a week of eating airport food on the go, and 5 days of funeral food. 

Funeral Food deserves to be it’s own food group in and of itself.  It is almost always homemade as well as made with a great amount of love.  It is eaten standing up and is impossible to measure any volume of calories on each plate.  I will admit that, to my dismay, I didn’t see a single deviled egg the entire week.  In my case, that was probably a good thing.  I’m a deviled egg junkie…

But, needless to say, I sampled almost everything else and fell off the diet wagon.

Today is a new day, and hopefully, will have some progress to show when I go in for Weigh Day on Friday.

Of course my blood pressure is elevated. I'm over weight, damnit!

Nineteen weeks left until my high school reunion and I should just get in under 200 lbs if I keep it up.  Only problem is listening to nurses at the weight loss clinic lecture me about high blood pressure. 

This morning I had a different nurse than usual.  I hate it when they change up on me.  I liked my old nurse.  I explained to her, the very first day, that I had “White Coat Syndrome” and that my blood pressure was a little elevated because I knew she was going to stick me in the butt with a two inch needle, so it would be best to check it again at the end of the weigh in, and subsequent needle sticking.  She did, and sure enough, it had gone back down to about 125 over 75. 

Is this so hard to understand?

So, this morning, at my weekly weigh in, a newer, very young nurse weighed me in, congratulated me on my weight loss, then took my blood pressure.  It was 130 over 90.  Not bad, but a little elevated (we know why).  Then she went and got another nurse to come ask me a bunch of questions and lecturing me about my blood pressure and medications and stuff like that.

Once again, I explained that, in addition to being over weight (which is a leading cause of high blood pressure), I have “White Coat Syndrome” and until they get through giving me my shot, my blood pressure will be a little elevated.  She told me I was making excuses…   I told her she wasn’t a very good listener. 

To make matters worse, she started lecturing me about drinking and that it would sabotage my weight loss.  What part of the 20 lbs that I’ve lost since mid-January has been sabotaged?  You want to see my blood pressure go up, make me continue this stupid diet without any alcohol…   That’ll do it for sure!

God Bless The Rose City Chili Cook-Off

Today marks the end of week five and I’m happy to report that as of Friday morning, I had lost 17 lbs. I didn’t bother weighing this morning because this past weekend was my beloved Rose City Chili Cook-Off (RCCO).  I told my weight counselor on Friday that all bets were off for the weekend, due to the cook-off.  She was sympathetic (I think).

A little history here…   This cook-off was originally set up as an annual event in 1981, but we missed a year shortly after the New Millennium, so instead of the 31^st Annual Rose City Chili Cook-Off, it was the 30^th Ever Rose City Chili Cook-Off.

I have been involved with this event since 1984, when my boss sent me out to take pictures of our company team. The following Year, I was Campaign Chairman for the hosting charity so I was involved again.  By 1986, my brother and two other friends decided to try our hand at cooking chili.  Again in 1991, I decided to, again, shoot for the coveted People’s Choice Chili Award, so I dragged my brother-in-law and one of my employees out to the RCCO.  It was not to be.

For the sake of clarity, I think it’s important to define the 2 kinds of chili judging that goes on at a chili cook-off.  There’s People’s Choice Chili, which really doesn’t have any rules and is served to the public and voted upon and the largest team usually wins, because they have, at least as many votes, going in, as they do team members, so there you go.  Then there’s Competition Chili, which is turned in in a Styrofoam Judging Cup, has a concealed ticked taped to the side, and is judged by a panel of Judges in a blind judging format.  At the end of the day, the winning cup has the ticket peeled off and announced.  The cook with the matching ticket wins…

By 1992, my Competition Chili was placing with some frequency and I soon became hooked and was a regular on the Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI) circuit.    

In 1994 and 1995, I was the Great Pepper of the Rose City Chili Pod and again from 1999 until 2003.  Needless to say, I was ready to put the responsibilities of chili cook-offs behind me and get back to being a regular old chili cook after that.

So why did I just share this plethora of information with you?  Well, because it is important to understand why I absolutely have to cook at it every year. 

In a nutshell, you reunite with old friends and get to drink a lot of beer and experience, what I like to call “the thrill of highly intense competition, without the inconvenience of physical exertion”.  There you have it!

Well beer isn’t on the list of drinks I can have (due to the carbs) but it’s a well-known fact that a chili cook has to drink beer 30 minutes before Chili Turn-In, because the cook needs to be able to taste the chili the same way that the Chili Judges are tasting it. 

Let’s face it, most of the time, Chili Judges are cleansing their pallets with beer, so needless to say, a good chili cook can’t make adjustments to his or her chili without, also, drinking beer.

Of course, who drinks just one beer? 

Originally, I had good intentions for lunch.  I packed a lunch tote with 250 calories of tuna salad.  Well….   I kind of got busy and the tuna salad probably got too warm to eat…  Then I discovered the food vendor, so I had a foot long ½ lb hotdog with lots of mustard.  And, yes, it was awesome!

I know, I was weak…

Good news was that, on Saturday, I won 7th Place out of 43 or 44 chilis.  Didn't do so well on Sunday...  

Oh, did I mention that there were 2 cook-offs over the weekend?  So, about 18 beers and a lot of beef & pork fat later (over the course of 2 days) I think I blew the diet.

When I woke up and went in the bathroom this morning, I took the side of my foot and gently slid my bathroom scales against the wall, under my towel rack, where it will be left undisturbed for several days, until I’m back on track. 

So there you have it, my weekend of weakness…   (Although I did get home with a trophy)...

Hopefully the next blog will provide some good news…